Currencies/Fixed Income:
- The USD maintained a steady hand in a busy data-driven European session. US data has recently come in on the strong side. Dealers noting that should the Fed soften its dovish tone further both US front-end yields and USD should move immediately higher. Dealer also added that should the Fed disappoint today the damage for USD would likely remain limited as long as there was continued data strength. The recent round of fresh sanctions against Russia has likely depressed European business sentiment further. EUR/USD continued to hit fresh 8-month lows and tested under the 1.34 handle in the session today.
- The USD/JPY pair stayed above the 102 handle as US 2-year swap rates were breaking higher
- The SEK currency was softer by 0.5% after Swedish 2Q GDP disappointed with EUR/SEK cross moving above 9.24 in trading
- European bond markets paused after its recent rally.

Political/In the Papers:
-IMF issued 2014 global stability report and stated that potential Argentina default would not shake markets; On Russia it stressed that more Russian sanctions could lead to additional spillover effects; Also; a scenario of sharply higher interest rates could combine with weaker growth in emerging markets to reduce global growth by as much as 2 percentage points in the next five years.
-(RU) EU formally agreed to next round of sanctions on Russia with composition of the new including: oil sector, dual use goods, defense, sensitive technology; It now barred EU brokers from trading stock or debt of Russian state banks. (** Note: The measures were largely in line with what was proposed in an EU draft from July 24th)
- (AR) Argentina debt meeting in NY said to have ended at this time - financial press; Argentina's Economy Minister said the meetings will continue tomorrow and remain in motion